Sponge Cake with Raspberry Mousse (and Macarons)

Roopa

This cake was probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing cakes I have ever made, and also one of the most interesting. The stenciled sponge cake outside was a really cool technique I’d never done before, and how can you go wrong with macarons and fruit as toppings?

Day 2:
Cake: Jaconde sponge cake; white sponge cake
“Icing”: Strawberry white chocolate mousse
Technique: Stenciling; macarons

PINK DECORATING PASTE (PATE A DECOR)

This is the part that was used to created the decorative effect on the outside of the cake.

INGREDIENTS

50 g softened butter
50 g icing sugar
2 egg whites
2 g food colouring
60 g cake flour

DIRECTIONS

Cream together the butter and the icing sugar
Add the egg whites and food colouring to the mixture and mix until incorporated
Sift in the flour and fold into batter
Use a stencil to put the paste into patterns on a silicone sheet (avoiding the edges)

Note: You’ll want to stencil this on fairly thick or it won’t be that visible

POPPY SEED JACONDE CAKE

This formed the layer that covered the outside of the cake, and gets exposed to the elements. Almond is a nice flavour since it’s very subtle. You can also use something like hazelnuts, but it will darken the look of the cake.

INGREDIENTS

120 g icing sugar
120 g ground black poppyseeds
120 almond flour
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
8 egg whites
180 g sugar
120 g cake flour

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 380 F
Combine the icing sugar, poppyseeds, and almond flour
Whisk in the eggs and yolks and whisk together
Whisk the egg whites and sugar to a medium stiff meringue
Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the almond mixture and combine well. Then combine the rest of the meringue into the mixture.
Bake until golden brown. This won’t take long as this is very thin.

Notes:

Grinding the seeds releases the aroma
Immediately after baking, you need to put cornstarch on top of the cake and flip it over onto parchment paper. This MUST happen while the cake is quite hot.
You can use black sesame seeds instead of poppyseeds.

WHITE SPONGE CAKE (2 x 6″ cakes )

This is the cake that gets layered inside of the cake ring.

INGREDIENTS

6 eggs
70 g egg whites
180 sugar
lemon zest
2 g vanilla
100 g cake flour
100 g cornstarch
60 g melted butter

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 34-350 F
Whip the eggs, egg whites, sugar, zest, and vanilla over a hot water bath until it reaches 45 C (little ouch).
Put the egg mixture in a stand mixer and whip at max speed for a few minutes until it reaches maximum volume.
Turn the speed down to medium and whip for at least 10 – 15 minutes. The mixture should be at ribbon stage and somewhat dry looking.
Sift in the flour and cornstarch and fold into the batter.
Mix in the melted butter.
Pour into the two pans and bake for 20 – 30 minutes

Notes:

Lower the heat if you make a deeper cake
Do NOT open the door prematurely. Definitely don’t open the door for at least 15 minutes. Once you see a golden brown top the oven is safer to open.
Warming the eggs before whipping them adds stability.

STRAWBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

This gets layered in between the sponge cake layers inside the cake ring.

INGREDIENTS

280 mL strawberry puree
lemon juice (1 lemon)
150 g sugar
8 gelatin sheets
150 white chocolate
300 mL cream

DIRECTIONS

Soak the gelatin in cold water.
Heat up the fruit puree, lemon juice, and sugar. Don’t boil this.
Squeeze the excess water out of the gelatin. Remove the puree mixture from the heat and mix in the gelatin.
Pour the puree over the white chocolate and stir until dissolved.
Once the strawberry base is cool, whip up the cream.
Mix 1/3 of the cream into the strawberry mixture. Then, fold the remaining 2/3 of the whipped cream into the mixture.

ASSEMBLY

The cake was assembled on day one, and decorated on day two. We made macarons on day two (described in a separate post here) to put on top of the the cake, and also glazed some strawberries and raspberries.